1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to controlling a three-dimensional motion of a graphic object, and more particularly, to controlling a three-dimensional motion of a graphic object that controls the movement and rotation of a displayed three-dimensional graphic object using a user input, such as a click or slide of a touch pad.
2. Description of the Related Art
The invention of the mouse opened an epoch of a graphic user interface (hereinafter, referred to as “GUI”). The Alto computer of Xerox Corporation, an early GUI computer, included a mouse, a graphic window, a network function, and an operating system supporting them. Then, with the development of additional techniques, the Star computer, an early commercial-use system, was developed, to which double-click and multi-window functions were applied.
After the launch of the Star system, Apple introduced the Lisa computer, which initially used a menu bar, a pull-down menu, and so on. The Lisa computer has been commercially successful and known to the general public. Apple later contributed to the popularization of GUI through the Macintosh computer.
Microsoft Corporation participated in manufacturing an application program used with the Macintosh computer, and then, on the basis of the techniques acquired at that time, developed Windows 1.0 as an operating system. Initially, Windows 1.0 was merely a software toolkit. However, with the development of newer techniques, Windows has become the most widely used operating system in the world at present.
With the spread of Windows and the appearance of the Internet, additional GUIs have been developed. Now, GUIs that provide user-friendly and intuitive information in various environments have been developed and used.
The GUI provides convenient use of the computer, and rapid and intuitive information transmission. A user moves a mouse pointer using a mouse and clicks or double-clicks an icon indicated by the mouse pointer so as to instruct a desired operation to the computer. Further, the GUI is used to display information, such as files or other kinds of data. In this case, information can be displayed through a separate dialog window, a help balloon, or the like.
With the development of integration techniques, various portable terminals, including tape players, CD players, pagers, cellular phones, MP3 players, and portable game machines have been developed.
Further, the development of digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) services is expected to stimulate the demand for portable terminals which provide DMB service, which will likely increase in the future.
Due to the widespread use of portable terminals, GUIs which can attract a user's attention have been developed.
FIG. 1 illustrates display of detailed information which is determined according to the selection of a menu item, according to the related art. FIG. 1 shows a case in which a level of information is determined according to a state of a menu item. That is, when a menu item is in a reduced state 10, only information representing kinds of data, such as file names, is displayed. When a menu item is selected by the user and is shown in an expanded state 20, in addition to the file names, the kinds, sizes, and other additional information of files are displayed.
However, the display shown in FIG. 1 represents data information statically, and thus does not provide visual effects to the user. With such a display, it is difficult to distinguishably display the levels of information.
Liquid crystal displays are widely used as display units in portable terminals. Liquid crystal displays are two-dimensional display devices which generally use a two-dimensional graphic object as a GUI.
Three-dimensional graphic objects may also be implemented and used. Three-dimensional graphic objects are displayed by a two-dimensional display device so as to illustrate motion of a three-dimensional object.
Three-dimensional graphic objects have been mainly used in games or the like, but are now used in menus of portable terminals. That is, the user can control the displayed three-dimensional graphic objects using an input unit, such as buttons, a joystick, or the like, and can thereby select his/her desired item.
However, four direction buttons and joysticks are limited in their ability to control the motions of a three-dimensional graphic object. That is, four direction buttons and joysticks can generally control only two-dimensional motions, and thus the motions of a three-dimensional graphic object are limited. Accordingly, in order to control the motions of a three-dimensional graphic object completely, additional buttons are required.
Additionally, although movement is easily implemented with the use of four direction buttons and joysticks, rotation of a three-dimensional graphic object is not easily implemented.
Therefore, a method and apparatus for implementing movement and rotation of a three-dimensional graphic object by intuitive input of a user is demanded.